THE aim of the study was threefold: to establish children's general feelings and re- sponses towards television commercials; to test their knowledge as regards the purpose of commercials and finally, to deter- mine the influence of the different compo- nents of television commercials on the child's retention of these. Thirty children in three different age groups were tested. It was established that although children do not always believe the claims that are made, they enjoyed commercials. Furthermore, they generally knew what commercials are about. A final conclusion was that vision is the most important non-verbal component which aided retention of the commercials.